CHRIS STAPLETON DOMINATES USA COUNTRY ALBUM SALES IN 2017

28/07/2017

Chris Stapleton has dominated country album sales in the US so far this year with his latest album ‘From A Room: Volume 1’ and his 2015 debut ‘Traveller’ landing first and second position on the 2017 best selling country album list so far. Chris Stapleton’s ‘From A Room: Volume One’ has already gone gold in the USA chart, selling over 500,000 copies since it’s release in early May.

Chris Stapleton will be back on the road again performing rescheduled tour dates across the USA (detailed below) as well as performing the annual iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 22 and 23 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas alongside performers including: Coldplay, The Weeknd, DJ Khaled, Lorde and Kings of Leon. For more details visit: http://www.chrisstapleton.com/

MORE INFORMATION ON CHRIS STAPLETON…

Chris Stapleton’s highly anticipated new album, From A Room: Volume 1, is out now on Mercury Records Nashville / Decca Records. Stapleton has already made his mark on the UK after popular demand saw the country star perform at high profile events such as Country To Country Festival at the 02 arena and the release of his album Traveller caught the attention of UK publications such as The Guardian and Daily Telegraph.

Influential publication Line Of Best Fit made single ‘Either Way’ track of the day, stating, “Stapleton's new record comes two years after acclaimed record Traveller and is rife with quality tunes - Stapleton's devilish way with words and knack for melody shine bright here - but it's "Either Way" that's caught our ears. It's a sparse ballad with Stapleton's inimitable vocal line underpinned by gentle acoustic flickers. The country star is economical with the notes, adding just what's required and nothing more, letting his agonised yowl speak tomes and leaving anything extraneous by the wayside - "Either Way" unrestrained and raw, trembling with heartfelt emotion.”

UK based Apple Music presenter Matt Wilkinson chatted to Chris in an extensive video interview for Beats 1 covering everything from his influences to the process behind making of the new record. Check it out here. With glowing reviews from the UK country community including Building Your Own Nashville – Stapleton’s sophomore release has been as warmly embraced on this side of the Atlantic, as it has in the USA.

Stateside, Stapleton spoke to Nashville Scene this week, stating the album was a team effort, “I’ve never written for a record, I just write songs, and then somehow a record happens out of the songs. My wife is always a great source of, ‘Hey that’s good, record that song.’ She knows my catalog better than I do, so a lot of the list came from her, but also from Brian Wright, who’s in A&R at Universal, who also knows my catalog better than I do. And there’s songs that Dave listened to before. And ‘Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning’ [written by Gary P. Nunn and Donna Sioux Farar, made famous by Willie Nelson] is a song I’ve always loved, and it’s a favorite of Derek [Mixon], the drummer of the band, too. So it’s a very organic way of finding songs — everybody throws some in the pot, and we see what rises to the top.”

Commenting on the album Nashville Scene wrote. “It’s almost impossible to believe that From A Room came from Nashville circa 2017 rather than, say, some sweaty bunker in ’70s Texas… From A Room: Volume 1 that practically demands that the album stay put on your turntable. Well, at least until Volume 2 hits.” Elsewhere, Rolling Stone gave the album four starts and stated, “It conjures Otis Redding as much as Waylon Jennings. Elsewhere, Stapleton is a convincing bluesman. You could imagine B.B. King singing "Death Row" or Freddie King slashing through "I Was Wrong" with his jagged Texas guitar, which Stapleton impressively echoes.” Consequence of Sound gave it a glowing review stating, “His move to add a layer of grit and spit to his work is a much-needed counterpoint to the Nashville hit machine.”

Another must read is The New York Times interview with Chris’ wife Morgane – telling the story of her own music career, overcoming stage fright to perform alongside Chris and her intrinsic role in the song selection process creating ‘From A Room’ Volume 1.

The highly anticipated full-length record is the first new music from Stapleton since 2015’s breakthrough double Platinum solo debut Traveller and will be followed by From A Room: Volume 2—coming later this year.

The new album takes its name from Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A, where it was recorded during the winter of 2016-17. Once again produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, Volume 1 features eight original songs as well as a rendition of “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning,” written by Gary P. Nunn and Donna Sioux Farar and made famous by Willie Nelson. Additional album highlights include “Second One To Know,” which Stapleton recently premiered at the 52nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards as well as the album’s first single, “Either Way.”

In addition to Stapleton on vocals and guitar and Cobb on acoustic guitar, the album features Morgane Stapleton on harmony vocals as well as longtime band-members J.T. Cure on bass and Derek Mixon on drums and musicians Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Robby Turner pedal steel and Mike Webb on keys.

The May 5 release of Volume 1 comes exactly two years to the day since the release of Traveller. Released to immediate widespread critical acclaim, the album had one of the best-selling first weeks by a debut country artist in 2015. Following a historic turn on the 49th Annual CMA Awards—where Stapleton became the first artist to win Album of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year at the same awards – Traveller became the first album to re-enter the Billboard 200 all-genre album chart at No. 1, where it stayed for two straight weeks. The critically acclaimed album went on to win multiple Grammy and ACM Awards and was the #1 selling Country album of 2016 and the fourth-highest selling album of 2016 across all genres. Additionally, in the past two years, Stapleton has performed on multiple national TV shows including “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and was profiled on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”

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